This is the fourth release of TwiLight, the postware screen saver for Macintosh computers. It contains a simple screen saver and it also allows you to set the brightness of your screen directly using the keys 0-9 at any time.
The software is POSTWARE, which means that I will accept a postcard from your home-town as payment for this package. Of course you may sent money, but a postcard is a lot cheaper, right?
What do you need ?
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You need a Macintosh Computer running under system 7.0.1 or higher to be sure that it works. I have tested TwiLight under system 6.0.8 and it worked, but I haven't used it for long periods under anything else than system 7.0.1 with TuneUp 1.1.1.
Package
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This package should contain:
TwiLight Readme
- this file with information, disclaimer and such
TwiLight
- the control panel
TwiLight Driver Installer
- an application that installs the Apple screen brightness driver
Installation
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To install the software, you drop the control panel named TwiLight on the System Folder icon. The system will ask you to allow it to put the file in the Control Panels folder. Click on OK.
Next start the driver install program named InstallDriver. This will install the Apple screen brightness driver used by TwiLight. Follow the instructions given by the program.
If your computer already has the Apple screen brightness driver installed in its ROM, the installer will tell you so:
If the computer doesn't have the driver installed in ROM, the installer will come up with the following screen:
This allows you to install and to remove the brightness driver. Because the driver must be stored in the System file, it is best to do the installation with no other applications running.
TwiLight Operation
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The screen-saver is controlled by the TwiLight Control Panel. It supports the balloon-help facility of System 7.
If you open the control panel on a machine that has the brightness driver installed, it will show you this window:
I will discuss the controls below:
The top part of the panel shows two checkboxes. The checkbox with the little question mark beside it controls balloon-help. To turn on balloon help, check this box. You can also turn balloon-help on from the menu.
The checkbox labelled 'On' controls the installation of the screen saver. If the box is checked, the screen saver will be installed each time you restart your mac.
The next part of the panel controls the brightness when the screen is dimmed and the time that the machine must be idle before the screen is dimmed. You can select a time between 1 and 30 minutes. The dimmed brightness can be selected between 0% and 100% of the current normal brightness. Be warned that 0% brightness makes it hard to tell if your machine is turned on, so my advice is to never set the level for dimmed brightness below 20%. Also note that if you set this level to 100%, you will not see anything when the screen is supposed to dim.
The following part controls two points on the screen that you can define. The first point is a corner of the screen where you can put the mouse cursor when you want to disable the dimming of the screen temporarily. The second point is a corner where you can put the mouse cursor when you want the screen to be dimmed immediately. These points can be any of the four corners of the screen. If you don't select a corner for a point, that feature will be disabled.
The bottom part of the panel is used to control the second feature of the screen saver. If you select any of the modifier keys (command, option, shift or control) here, then you can set the brightness of the screen (when the screen saver is installed, so have the checkbox labelled 'On' checked) directly, by pressing the selected modifier keys and any of the keys 0 (0% of maximal brightness) through 9 (100% of maximal brightness). This is really useful when your room doesn't have a constant brightness.
If none of the modifiers are selected, then this feature is disabled.
Also note that this is not a permanent setting. After restart the brightness level will be that level which is set by the brightness control panel.
CopyRight & Distribution
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You have the right to use the program, to give away copies of the complete package for a reasonable fee to cover expenses. You may not sell the package alone or along with any other package. You may not make any changes to the program and you may only distribute the package as a whole. If you give this software away, please include this documentation.
The screen brightness driver that is included in this package is a product of Apple Computer Inc. and as such copyrighted by Apple.
DISCLAIMER
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MacBear Software Development provides this program as is. Use of any product of MacBear Software Development is at your own risk. MacBear Software Development will not accept any responsibility for damage, in whatever form, that may have been caused by this or any other product of MacBear Software Development.
IMPORTANT: Some of the code that is used in this product is not documented by Apple Computer Inc. Consequently, the program COULD behave strange and even may cause damage to your system. However this product has been tested on a Classic II for several months under system 7 with Tune-Up 1.1.1, without ANY difficulties.
I have received reports from users using TwiLight with:
• Macintosh Classic
• Macintosh Classic II
• Macintosh LC with color screen
• Macintosh CI with full page screen
Version
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This is version 7.1.4 of the package. It is the fourth release and it introduces TwiLight to the complete line of Macintosh computers, not only Classics and Classic IIs. This release fixes a bug in the installer program. When the driver was installed in the system file, the installer would not be able to remove it because it decided that the driver was ROM based. This error has been corrected.
Thank you notes
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I would like to thank all who have reacted so far, either by sending me a postcard or by sending email. A big thank you goes to Marc Huber for bringing the Apple screen brightness driver to my attention. This driver allows TwiLight to run on (I hope) every Macintosh computer.
I would like to make TwiLight as compatible with the Macintosh line as possible. If you have TwiLight running on your machine or if you had problems or it doesn't work at all on your machine, please inform me (preferably via email but normal postal mail is fine with me too).
Address
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I'd love to hear from users so send bug reports, suggestions for improvement and possible new features and POSTCARDS of your home-town to:
MacBear p/a
Bisschopstraat 12
5502 BJ Veldhoven
The Netherlands
or send email to
robert@info.win.tue.nl (valid until september 1994)
If possible, state your type of Macintosh and system version.